Cafe Fleuri at The Langham Hotel

Once upon a time, Renee, the woman behind the Boston Brunchers, worked with Cafe Fleuri at The Langham Hotel to invite 15 Boston food bloggers to the fancy City Brunch Buffet.  Miss Yunks was lucky to be one of the chosen 15 and on the highly anticipated morning of January 23 bundled up in this 20 degree cold Winter and headed into Boston to stuff her face at the 5 page menu buffet.

I was the token vegetarian at the table and came prepared to plow my way through the brunch maze and eat as many vegetarian options as I could fit into my stomach.  I met Megan, Daisy, Meghan, and Emily in the hotel lobby and started taking photos immediately.  Follow me through my photo tour of the City Brunch Buffet.

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Here comes the (almost) embarrassing display of my plates.  There’s a strict No Judgement policy at blogger brunch.

Plate #1

In my first run, I sampled the beets with goat cheese, pumpkin ravioli, potatoes with goat cheese sauce, pasta with brussel sprouts, and the small plate of mozzarella with tomatoes.  Beets with goat cheese is a new favorite combination of mine and I was thrilled to see this adorable presentation at brunch.  The beets were sliced in bite size chunks and the goat cheese was extra creamy.  I haven’t had brussel sprouts since college and was also really excited to see them make an appearance here.  They were roasted to perfection and while a bit too oily, they were really tasty.  The goat cheesy potatoes was a unique cold potato salad and the pumpkin ravioli was a nice glimpse of Fall flavor.  The mozzarella and tomatoes tasted very fresh and the I really enjoyed the light flavor.  This plate was a perfect start to the buffet.  I also grabbed a smoothie shot in this round.  I failed to include it in this photo, but the smoothie was excellent and the serving glass was the perfect size for a taste.

Plate #2

I couldn’t resist the whipped chantilly cream any longer.  Plate #2 is filled with a cheese blintze topped with honey butter and shaved chocolate, a mini waffle topped with Chantilly cream and caramelized bananas, a freshly prepared vanilla crepe filled with mixed berries and topped with cream, and a fried mac and cheese bite.  This is my favorite plate.  I loved everything you see here.  I don’t normally top blintzes with chocolate, but I may start now!  The waffle was light and fluffy and crispy on the outside.  The berries in the crepe were like a bite of Summer.  The whipped cream tasted as perfect as it looked.  The mac and cheese bite was from the Kids’ Table I later realized.  No, the road map carpet under the table and toy cars on the table did not phase me. Whipped cream and mac and cheese are two of my favorite childhood foods – if you’re willing to call whipped cream a food, and I am.  I am so stuffed from brunch but remembering the flavors of plate #2 gives me hope that one day I’ll be hungry again.

Plate #3I was taking a little break after Plate #2, when a server carrying a basket of beignets visited our table and offered us fresh, hot, cinnamon-sugary beignets.  The warm munchkin size donut was so delicious.  I’d never had one before and finally fulfilled my lifelong dream.  Okay that’s a small dramatization, but I have wanted to go to New Orleans just to eat beignets after seeing photos of my sister and my friend there!

Plate #4

I took one more stroll to see if I missed anything before I headed for dessert-land, from which there is no return.  I filled plate #4 with mashed potatoes, cantaloupe, pizza, cheese pie, and more pasta with brussel sprouts.  The mashed potatoes were cream and buttery, just like I expect from a restaurant but would never prepare at home.  The cantaloupe was refreshing to add in with my savory choices.  The pizza also came from the kids’ table and yes, I did get made fun of visiting this table. Twice.  No regrets! The pizza had fresh mozzarella and was quite tasty.  The cheese pie is the only item I tried and didn’t enjoy.  Much too cheesy for me.  I enjoyed my second helping of pasta and am now more determined to make brussel sprouts at home.

This concludes my lunch plates.  I was completely satisfied with the amount of vegetarian choices.  I will mention that there was also a crazy amount of non-vegetarian options including sushi made to order, oysters and other seafood, and a meat carving station.  Also not photographed was a pasta station and omlette station.  Made to order food takes a brunch buffet up a notch in my book.  Most of the food is sitting out just waiting to be eaten, so it’s nice to have the option of fresh made just for you food too.  The only station I visited was the crepe station.  I tend to eat foods I can’t easily make at home at buffets.  I find it’s a helpful method for making my way through and eating as much as possible while making my choices count.  And now – dessert.

Plate #5

I loaded one plate with chocolate goodies.  I tried the chocolate croissant bread pudding, a ‘hoodsie’ cup, dark chocolate creme brulee, and roasted chili chocolate brownie.  I love chocolate bread pudding.  I came to the Chocolate Buffet at the Langham many, many years ago with my family.  I don’t remember much about it, but I do remember loving the chocolate bread pudding.  That was probably my first bread pudding experience and it’s not until this very moment as I’m writing this that I’m realizing this must be the same chocolate bread pudding.  Mmmm…that’s all I have to say about that.  The dark chocolate creme brulee was intensely chocolate.  I enjoyed one bite and that’s all I could handle.  I couldn’t taste chili flavor at all in the brownie, but the chocolate was delicious.  This plate, while utterly delicious, was so decadent that I couldn’t finish everything and was so happy I also had this raspberry mousse dome on the side.  It’s important to have a balanced dessert plate.  For every four chocolate items, take one fruit dessert too.

After reliving this brunch through photos, I’m not surprised that I’m still completely full at 8pm and skipping dinner.  Who knew you could eat a day’s worth of food in 2 hours?

I would definitely indulge in this buffet again, should the appropriate special occasion present itself.  At $52 per person, heaven doesn’t come cheap.  Thank you Renee, for organizing this fabulous brunch and thank you to Cafe Fleuri for hosting us!

And this happily stuffed, sleepy food blogger lived happily ever after.

Full Disclosure: The $52 brunch was provided free or charge.  Drinks, tax, and tip were not included.  I was not obligated to review the brunch.

Have you brunched at Cafe Fleuri before?  What’s the last great brunch you enjoyed?